I have alternated between low-paying yet meaningful not-for-profit work and warehousing most of my adult life. Wanting to get ahead I decided to finish my education and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from an online college in 2011. I now pay $535 a month in loans and must finish graduate school to do what I truly want to do, which is form a self-supporting intentional community to empower homeless people. At $40,000 in debt I am hesitant, the balance is creeping down ever so slowly. I may need to borrow another $25,000 to finish grad school. I’m split between going back to material handling or taking the plunge.
It is a sad state of affairs that I can earn more driving a truck than serving to improve the lives of others. Something has seriously gone awry in America. My father, a high school graduate, worked one union job in Cleveland and raised three children; my mother did not work except by choice until I was 13.
Why have we incentivized the exportation of so many of our good-paying jobs?
Neal Lampi
Seattle
